Three logistics carriers feature among 20 companies recognised in General Motors South Africa’s 2009 Supplier of the Year awards announced this week at an event held at the new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.
Identified in the logistics category for superior performance over the last year are UTi, Vehicle Delivery Services and To Anywhere Carriers (TAC), each judged on their performance in the areas of quality, service, technology and price.
UTi, which recently posted revenues for the past year of $991.5m, up 11% from $894.1m in 2008, is responsible for inbound material milkruns to GMSA’s plants that involve daily collections from suppliers across South Africa, consolidation of parts and delivery.
“Over the past five years UTi have consistently exceeded their targets, have met the challenge of reduced volumes and avoided a price increase by going through a significant internal cost reduction exercise,” said GMSA vice president of global purchasing and supply chain, Evan Dold. “They have gone the extra mile on many occasions, one example being their support of several urgent business transfers in late 2009. UTi PLC provided fleets of trucks at extremely short notice and were completely flexible, thus playing a very significant role in a number of successful tooling moves over the December 2009 shutdown period.”
With reference to Vehicle Delivery Services, Dold told Automotive Logistics News that the company had been recognised for achieving 98.5% on-time deliveries of finished vehicles during 2009, up 1.2% on 2008.
“By instituting effective damage countermeasures they also managed to successfully reduce damage IPTV [incidents per thousand vehicles] to within our stretch target of 7, with an actual of score of 5.9 damages per thousand vehicles; this despite declining road surface conditions due to World Cup-related road works,” said Dold.
To Anywhere Carriers, which also carries finished vehicles for GMSA, have won a supplier award for the second year in row. The company has raised its on-time delivery score from 94.5% in 2008 to 96.3% of deliveries in 2009 across a difficult distribution network of 70 dealers that includes Namibia, Botswana, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, taking on average just over 3.3 working days per vehicle delivery.
According to Dold, To Anywhere Carriers also scored well on damage, improving on the prior year from 7.4 to 5.7 IPTV.
“In addition to vehicle delivery logistics, TAC was also awarded the tender for vehicle body movements between our Kempston Road and Struandale plants, added Dold. “The transition of suppliers was executed with great efficiency within a challenging time-frame of only two weeks.”
The full list of award winners is as follows:
Direct Materials category:
Body – Exterior
DuPont Freeworld
Sentech Industries
Perfect Tooling
Chassis
Armstrong Hydraulics SA
August Läpple South Africa
Borbet South Africa
Electrical
PFK Electronics
HVAC
Smiths Manufacturing
PCRM
LUK Africa
Interior – Safety
Lear Corporation South Africa
Indirect Materials category:
Engineering & Manufacturing Services
Multiple Maintenance Services CC
Indirect Materials & Products
Easigas
Vehicle Sales, Service & Marketing
Ad Makers
Logistics category:
UTi PLC
Vehicle Delivery Services
To Anywhere Carriers
Component Exports category:
Umicore Catalyst Port Elizabeth
Carcoustics South Africa
Aftersales Parts & Accessories category:
Beekman Super Canopies
Rex Diff and Gearbox
Schaeffler South Africa
